o hell with anyone who wants to slow us down: Japandroids’ ‘Celebration Rock’
“I feel no shame in admitting that during the best moments of the last 25 years, I was definitely not sober” (LW)
Japandroids
„Celebration Rock“
(Polyvinyl Record)
„Gimme that night you were already in bed, said ’fuck it’, got up to drink with me instead.“
(Japandroids in „Younger Us“)
Thurston Moore (from Sonic Youth) once said that he doesn’t just want to record albums, he wants to be one himself. I feel the same way – and so my mind started racing: Which album would I like to be? What kind of record could represent me? How would I like to be perceived?
After an intensive process of elimination – no ancient albums, nothing polished or even intellectual – it suddenly clicked: the coolest thing would be to be Celebration Rock by Japandroids, of course. Totally obvious! The Canadian rock duo’s magnificent second album has its genre description right in the title: it’s rock “n” roll for celebrating – or rather, rock “n” roll that celebrates what this genre (and lifestyle) actually means.
Celebration Rock has nothing to do with other albums released in 2012. Absolutely nothing. Instead, Brian King (guitar) and David Prowse (drums), the two classic rock experts in Japandroids, have captured the aesthetic spirit of their heroes in a way that comes across as completely authentic. The energetic record sounds as if they distilled the essence of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’ – i.e. together we can achieve anything as long as we drive straight towards the horizon and never stop – into ultra-simple/direct rock anthems, throwing away all the frills and revealing the pure mentality of rock “n” roll. Throw your fears out the window, nobody needs them anyway! To hell with everyone who wants to slow me down! Alcohol and cigarettes are bad for you, but actually, they’re not! This album contains a total of eight songs, and theoretically, they could all be called ‘Party Rock Anthem.’
This is music that makes you throw your fists in the air with joy. No, it’s not cool in the classic sense: the record starts and ends with fireworks sounds, there are repeated roaring ‘Oh! Oh! Oh!’ choruses, one song is called ‘Adrenaline Nightshift’, “Arm in arm with me tonight, singing out loud ‘Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!’‘ in the epic closer ’Continous Thunder”. Conveying these words without coming across as embarrassing is a masterstroke that should not be underestimated.
I feel no shame in admitting that during the best moments of the last 25 years – that is, my entire life, as I was born in 2000 – I was definitely not sober. I have experienced many of the euphoric, life-affirming and therefore memorable moments that Japandroids describe on Celebration Rock. Of course, I’ve also experienced a lot of shit, but when I put this album on, only the good times remain. Only the best rock classics remain, the rest falls away; only positivity fills my heart, everything negative evaporates.
„It’s a lifeless life, with no fixed address to give. But you’re not mine to die for anymore, so I must live.“ (Japandroids in „The House That Heaven Built”)
Lennart Brauwers
